Tag Archives: iPod nano

The biggest change to the iPod nano has come. A few years back, Apple introduced a watch-face like 1 in x 1 in touch screen square that I felt was their weakest iPod nano. One would navigate the screen purely through touch as there was no home button. Many people have complained about it being too small and shuffle-like (such as myself). I feel that the last generation iPod nano will be the iPod shuffle in a year or two once the price to make such a thing isn’t as expensive. The watch idea was taken into full effect as 3rd party manufacturers made wristbands that would fit the iPod and make it into a watch, which I think Apple was going for. The idea itself sparked the concept that Apple might be working on an iPhone watch but it has since been mostly discarded. Apple, it seems, has used the iPod nano as their design testing device with more changes to the chassis each time a new one comes out. Apple, this year, has returned to the long, thin, skinny chassis with a twist…

Screen

The major concept of Apple’s event was the enlargement of screen sizes and the iPod nano is no exception. Featuring a 2.5 inch touch screen, the iPod nano goes back to the long thin chassis. I predicted and even suggested to Apple that they make a larger touch screen on the nano and whether knowingly or not, they listened and I’m glad they did.

Home Button

The iPod nano has now become more iOS like through the use of the home button. It features the same concept as the home button of iOS devices- bring me back home. It is a step forward into the iOSification for Apple’s second most popular iPod (second only to the iOS device, iPod touch).

Chassis

The Chassis, as always, is colored and is advertised on Apple’s site as being glass and smooth aluminum. The iPod comes in seven different colors (all colors are featured with white as well), gray, purple, yellow, blue, green (my favorite), black and pink. It has the thinnest chassis of any iPod ever- 5.4 mm thin and it is about the size of a credit card. The chassis is made out of aluminum and glass, as all of the products Apple announced this week.

Connections and buttons

In terms of buttons, for the first time ever, the iPod nano will feature two new distinct iOS device features. First, the aforementioned iOS-like home button. I say iOS-LIKE because it isn’t the exact design as the iOS home button. It also has, for the first time ever, a volume control bar on the side of the iPod. In terms of connecting, it features the same 3.5 mm headphone jack, but it features the new controversial 5 pin dock connector at this charger and USB, marking the first time ever in five years that Apple has changed it’s dock connector. Whether or not it was for the better, I will discuss in another article.

Interface

I mentioned iOS-like features earlier but the new interface, while iOS inspired, is not iOS itself. Icons for “apps” are circles instead of rounded squares giving them a sort of PS Vita look but better and more organized. In pictures, it appears it has two home screen pages and like iOS, show tiny gray circles on the button to include page # and amount of pages. Don’t get too excited because, it doesn’t have wifi therefore no App Store. Whether Apple will release a modified app store to buy apps remained to be seen, but that’s what the iPod touch is for so I doubt it.

Music

The music app on the iPod nano is very similar to the music app in iOS. Search music or browse by artist, album, genre, composer, title etc. just as before in the old iPod nano but now you can actually see the results due to the larger screen. Genius is a built in feature of the new iPod nano that allows you to play songs similar to the one you are currently listening to, so you can keep the mood created by the original song.

Video

The video app is, again, very similar to iOS. You can watch TV shows, video podcasts, movies, music videos etc. If it’s a video, it works! Tap the 2.5 inch multi-tocuh display to stop, skip, play, rewind etc. just as in iOS devices. It really is cool.

Bluetooth 4.0

Bluetooth is absolutely a strong new feature of the iPod nano. With it, you can pair the iPod nano with wireless headphones, speakers or car audio systems. It of course takes no wires so it’s just wireless audio coming from your speakers. It is a very cool feature that whenever I get the new iPod nano, will be a widely at use feature and I am very glad they brought it.

Radio

FM radio has been a feature in the iPod touch before so it isn’t new but they brought interesting new changes to it. You can now pause live radio for up to 15 minutes which is incredible. You can rewind back 15 minutes to catch something you might have missed or wanted to go back to and then you can zoom back up to live radio. The only thing I’ve ever seen pause live radio is an app on iOS, so it really is a cool feature.

EarPods

Apple has changed it’s earphones. For me, it’s thank goodness as i never really like those headphones, I usually gave them away to someone who didn’t have any since my 3rd-party headphones are way better. Apple did say this time however, that these headphones, called EarPods can sound better than my expensive, high-quality sound. So as soon as I can get my hands on them, I will compare the two. I hope what they say is true, so other people can get higher quality sound than what they are used to.

Lightning Connector

As aforementioned, Apple changed it’s dock connector and whether or not that was a good idea or not remains to be seen. However, I feel that if Apple does something, it must be for a reason since such a company knows what it is doing. Apple says it is thinner, lighter, smaller and can connect to the iPod on both sides like the MagSafe connector on the MacBooks. They will offer a 30-Pin to Lightning adapter so don’t worry, you can still use 30-pin, as manufacturers for cases, accessories etc. are switching to the new standard. However, with wireless capabilities of BlueTooth, it will become less and less relevant anyway.

Other Features

Fitness features will put a pedometer in your pocket and while you to connect wireless via Bluetooth to heart-rate monitors. In addition, you can connect to nikeplus.com and keep track of your progress. Photos, of course, will look better with the bigger screen. It will come with the same iOS features such as pinch-and-zoom. You will have access to Podcasts through iTunes and you can put Podcasts onto your iPod nano. Accessibility features are all new with the ability to help blind people use the iPod. These features are known as some of the most helpful to those who can’t seen and are universally known by the disabled. It comes with VoiceOver, Invert Colors and Mono Audio.

Price

The iPod nano only sells at one model now which is a 16 GB model at $149 which I believe to be a bargain becaus of all of the great features.

The iPod nano is bound to be the best selling and quite frankly, the best iPod nano yet. Perhaps this is the iPod nano in which they will stick with, because it is truly the best one they have made, no if’s and’s or but’s about it.

The next iPod line is set to debut sometime in the near future, either later in the year or early next year. What will Apple do with their iPod lines? Let’s discuss this in great detail. We will talk about the “Big 4” AKA the shuffle, nano, touch, and the classic.

Classic- Any people out there who are looking forward to buying a new classic will be genuinely disappointed. By my predictions (and quite a few others) Apple will cut its iPod classic line just as it will with the Mac Pro. The iPod Classic was last updated in 2009. This revision, including the one before it in 2008, was minimal. The last major update was in 2007, 5 years ago. It has been only two years or less for the other iPods’ updates (depending on the type of iPod) and people are already getting fired up about a new update. An iPod generally updates once every one to two years. The iPod classic in particular was almost always one year in between updates. The time between the latest update and the one before it was 12 months (this would be the 2009 and 2008 revisions, respectively). If I were you and wanted a iPod classic, I would get one now because soon it will be just what it’s name is.

Expected time of release of the new iPod line- we should be expecting a new iPod line sometime in the fall, possibly somewhere around September since September is usually the time they release the new iPods (the previous touches, nanos, and shuffles were all released in September along with almost every other model).

Shuffle- The iPod shuffle has been a popular iPod release ever since it was released alongside the Mac mini (see the irony?) in 2005. It is light and small and holds enough songs to get a good workout out of and more. It is also one of Apple’s more affordable products. It’s the iPod for people on a budget. Because of this, Apple preserve the same price. Apple will more than likely step up it’s game when it comes to storage. It may be able to feature a 4 and 8 GB storage for 49.99 and 69.99 respectively. They will probably keep the same shape and just improve the overall “guts” of the shuffle.

Nano- The iPod nano has been a great member of the iPod family ever since Steve Jobs took it out of the “jeans pocket that had no use until then” (if you saw the keynote you will know what I mean). The iPod nano has seen some interesting shape changes in its years. First it was a long rectangle, then a shorter, flat rectangle, back to a long rectangle again and then now a touch-screen square. Personally, my favorite shape was the square (3rd generation). If I were Apple, I would make it this shape and make it touchscreen at the same time. I think they should get rid of the small square. I will admit, though, it makes a great watch! Of course I’m not Apple and as it turns out, IF the rumors are right, they are sticking to the nano as is. However, there may be a few new features to that. One, there will probably be a camera. Many people were not to happy when they dropped the camera from the last model (especially since they can no longer record videos using the cyborg effect). I think Apple will see their mistake there and put a camera in this time. The last time there was a camera, it was 3.2 MP, pretty low compared to today’s standards. I believe Apple will feature a higher MP camera on a new iPod nano. We may be looking at 5MP, however don’t expect it to go higher than this since the camera does take room and room is not something the nano has. Two, there might be a new feature similar to that of AirPlay. It will be able to send the music wirelessly from iPod to Apple TV. I think the regular iPods are ready for this. The iPod touch already sports it, so why cant the nano? The operating system will probably stay the same. It’s iOS-like features appeal more to people than Apple’s iPod OS. The changes under the hood will probably feature a storage boost, something we haven’t seen in a while from Apple. It is a possibility that it could sport its typical 8GB low-end model but instead of just 8 and 16, it may be able to feature 8, 16 and 32 at $129, $149 and $169 respectively. The sound quality will be improved even more than it is now (even though it’s excellent as is). The guts of the iPod nano will definitely have an improvement however we may not see much of an improvement in terms of shape or OS.

iPod touch- These “training wheels for the iPhone” have been saved purposely. We always have to save the best for last! The iPod touch 5G will feature better guts but may end up getting cosmetic and OS work done too. First, the boring stuff then the exciting stuff. The storage on the iPod touch now is very interesting. It features 8, 32 and 64 GB models. Apple has been stuck on the 8GB entry model for a while now and I think it is time to move on. I think a 16 GB model would be good as the low end. This would be followed by a 32, 64 and a possible 128 GB model. That’s right a 128GB model. Apple could pull it off if it wanted to, it has the resources, and if it doesn’t, it has the labs to design new resources. I think Apple could easily pull it off. I have a 32 GB model and I find myself having to remove apps off it all the time since I need more space for new ones. It’s the music, videos, TV shows and movies that take a burden on my space, even if I had a 64 GB, I may end up being burdened after a while. The camera is something that has bothered me for a while now. It’s ok at recording (720p) but its MP is just not good. I think Apple should strive for 1080p, especially since its on the new iPad already. I think on terms of megapixels we could be looking at 5MP, since again, space is an issue and the new iPad is 5MP, I don’t think they will give an iPod touch a better camera than an iPad, but then again the iPhone 4S does have 8MP with 1080p video so maybe we might see more than 5. I believe another feature Apple should include is glare-resistant, fingerprint-proof screen. I know I’m not the only that says they get annoyed at glare and fingerprints. It isn’t a huge deal but at times it does hinder performance. The new A5X processor debuted in the new iPad and I expect that it will make an appearance in the new iPod touch and ultimately the iPhone 5. This of course will lead to an big increase in performance allowing for 1 GB of RAM (finally) and better speed and graphics. I believe some changes in software will occur as well. I believe we will be well into iOS 5.2 or even 5.3 which could feature voice dictation among other things. One thing that Apple could do is offer its adaptation of the 3D screen, kind of like a 3DS. It would make the iPod more fun, but fun may not apply to business users. Many business people use the iPos touch because of its ease of use and light weight. In speaking of weight, I think the next generation will feature an even lighter weight and a even thinner thickness.

There are many possibilities of different variations, different ways and features Apple could put in their new iPod line. We will have to wait and see what Apple does next with them. Please comment what you would like to see in the next iPod line.